...
and more in John Hitchcock's
decades spanning look at
Mid-Atlantic Wrestling!

Wrestling
Memories
from Greensboro,

North
Carolina -

the
Heart of
Mid-Atlantic Wrestling

Heel Time in
Thomasville and Burlington

As a group, we couldn't get enough of wrestling. Bruce, Bud, Lisa,
Obin, Big Eddie, KC and I went anywhere that was with in an hour and
a half drive to see wrestling.

It became our cool thing to do and I bet we all hit every armory and
high school gym that had wrestling. And every time we went, we drove
the other fans crazy cheering for the heels. These towns were really
strange in that these people were ninety percent true believers and
we pushed as many buttons we could find.

It was a little dangerous but with that many people in our group,
we got away with it. After taking over at the Greensboro Coliseum, these
cracker boxes with about one hundred and fifty people didn't have a
chance.

We all were loud and obnoxious as any body could be and the wrestlers
loved it. The building would be cold during the winter but if we showed
up there was heat inside and thee wrestlers played off of us as hard
as we cheered against them.

It was a real hoot and after awhile, the other fans broke into two
groups. One large group that dreaded seeing us and a small group that
wanted to join us.

And if one of these hillbillies tried to sit with us, we would light
their ass up as being a turncoat. Man, there were many times that after
turning on a young mark I would see the guy leave crying as we hammered
the guy .

One night a young guy started cheering with us and I did not like him.
So I looked right at him and said he could join our group if he got
his teeth fixed. He started crying like a baby.

What a wussy.

Another thing that we all noticed really fast is that every wrestler
on the show would have a group of friends' ringside cheering them on.

These people were really easy to spot because once you started giving
their boy hell they would pop like nobody's business. This was a lot
of fun. Those guys and gals would get more into yelling at us then cheering
for their buddy.

We got this one chick so hot at us that she went to the backroom and
demanded that the Lumber Warrior come out and kick our asses. The Warrior
acted all pissed at us but as soon as she turned her back he would laugh
with us.

We didn't let anybody join our group but one guy, Chris Cruise. Cruise
was the play-by-play announcer for WCW for many years and it turned
out he loved wrestling as much as we did.

Of course, he was handicapped because he grew up in Maine and worshipped
the WWF product and was the biggest mark in the civilized world for
Bruno Samartino.

At first it was very difficult to like the guy because he constantly
raved about Bruno. And week after week he got to call the matches at
WCW and he couldn't tell that WCW was vastly superior to that over rated
Yankee wrestling.

I mean, can you imagine thinking Bruno was a big deal when you watch
Ric Flair week after week? But Cruise soon fit right in and we all had
a ball at every show we went to.

Cruise also was one of the most out of touch guy I ever met as far
as wrestling went. He always asked Bruce and I what was going on in
the wrestling world. The guy worked in the business and didn't have
a clue most of the time!

But he had a very wicked sense of humor and fit right in. At another
show the main event was Bugsey Mc Graw verses Jimmy Valiant. Mc Graw
is a big pot bellied guy and Valiant is really skinny.

Matter of fact, Valiant looked like a homeless starving bum, nothing
like the big time main eventer that was so famous in the Mid Atlantic
Territory during the eighties. So as the match started, I stood up and
announced to the crowd that this match was going to be fought over cheeseburgers.

I then tossed about four McDonald's Cheeseburgers into the ring .I
figured that they would put up a real fight for food. Both wrestlers
were pretty shocked but Valiant pushed a few burgers into his corner
to eat after the match.

The place went nuts cheering against us but that was to be expected.
Some did get a laugh out of the stunt.

After about three months, we were getting really good heat on all of
us. And that would lead us to other very strange nights in the future.